Move over, Peru and Chile – when it comes to mining for gold and copper, Ecuador is proving to be the next bastion of growth. Only about 10% of the South American country’s territory has been explored despite being home to some of the world’s largest undeveloped gold and copper assets. The country is rapidly moving from a mining concept to a proven jurisdiction, home to major projects like Lundin Gold's Fruta del Norte gold mine and the Mirador copper mine.
Ecuador's advantages include lower elevation deposits closer to the Pacific coast, which simplifies logistics and reduces costs. The country has also built out hydropower infrastructure, offering miners renewable energy at low rates, and uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency, eliminating foreign exchange risk. The government has been incentivizing mining through streamlined environmental permitting and investment protection agreements.
M&A activity is heating up, with Jiangxi Copper's $1.2 billion acquisition of SolGold and CMOC Group’s $420 million deal to acquire Lumina Gold, underscoring growing major-company conviction in Ecuadorian porphyry assets. Building on that is Auro Metals Inc. (OTC: AURFF), a Canadian mineral exploration company. Its recent acquisition of the Santa Barbara project from Silvercorp transformed it from an early-stage explorer into a serious player in Ecuador.
Located in the Zamora Copper-Gold Belt of southeastern Ecuador, the Santa Barbara Gold-Copper Project is a large-scale porphyry system with a high-confidence indicated resource of 29.8 million tonnes containing 697,000 ounces of gold and 68 million pounds of copper, as well as a much larger inferred resource of 205.7 million tonnes. “The closing of this acquisition marks the beginning of a new chapter for Auro,” said Victor Feng, CEO of Auro. “Santa Barbara is a large-scale, gold-copper porphyry system with an existing resource and significant exploration upside in one of the world's most prolific gold-copper metallogeny belts.”
Drilling at Santa Barbara commenced in April with four drill rigs on site. Five holes have been completed, with core being prepared for assay. The phase 1 program aims to confirm historical drill results, complete infill drilling to upgrade resources, and obtain fresh core for understanding mineralization controls. A subsequent phase 2 program will focus on step-out drilling and resource extension. As major companies continue to lock down Ecuador’s premier porphyry assets, Auro is positioning itself at the forefront of this mining explosion.
